Money and payments

This is the network the latest block page reads. It started in 2009.

The 2008 paper is titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. It was published under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. That paper put the parts of a blockchain together for this use.

Bitcoin is not a stablecoin. Computer code issues it, on a network that no one person or company controls. The price tends to move up and down quickly, because other assets do not back it. That is one reason crypto is not widely used to pay for things.

No decision has been taken on whether to issue a digital pound. The Bank of England and HM Treasury are in the final stages of the design phase. They will publish their conclusions later in 2026. The design page agrees: no decision has been made.

If one were issued, the Bank of England would issue it. It would be a digital form of a banknote, in sterling. It would not replace cash, and it would not be a cryptocurrency or a cryptoasset. Parliament would have a say before any launch. The earliest it would be issued is the second half of this decade.

The Digital Pound Lab is an experiment, not a currency a person can hold. Phase 2 concluded in Jul 2026. It was a set of demonstrations of how a digital pound might be used for everyday payments. The Bank built some with Accenture. Organisations that took part built the others. The policy choices in those demonstrations were for the experiment. Showing them does not mean the Bank approves the firms, their products or their services. This card does not list those firms.

These are draft rules for sterling stablecoins that would be widely used for payments. They are not a finished code, and they are not a named coin.

A stablecoin is a digital asset that can be used to make payments. Assets back it, so its value stays linked to something else, usually a currency. It is not the cash you carry, and it is not a bank balance. A technology company, rather than a bank, could create one. Some people in the UK use stablecoins linked to the US dollar. A small number are linked to the pound. None were widely used for payments in the UK. The Bank's rules would apply only to stablecoins widely used for payment.

On 22 Jun 2026 the Bank published a policy statement and a draft Code of Practice for issuers of systemic stablecoins. A systemic stablecoin is one widely used in payments. HM Treasury decides whether to recognise a payment system as systemic, using criteria in the Banking Act 2009. The Bank's regime does not cover stablecoins used to buy and sell cryptoassets, which is the main use today. The FCA supervises those.

Up to 70 per cent of the backing assets may be short-term UK government debt, and the rest deposits at the Bank. That share was 60 per cent in the consultation. Each systemic stablecoin would have a temporary cap on how much can be issued, initially £40 billion, instead of the temporary holding limits the Bank had consulted on. The Bank intends to finalise the Code of Practice by the end of 2026, after feedback that was due by 22 Sep 2026. That would allow regulated stablecoins to operate in the UK from 2027. The code is still a draft.